Photography of Flies

[Light Cahill]

How do I photograph my flies for submission on the web-site. Do I use special close-up lenses. Anyone... anyone...?

[Curtis Fry]

Our dear Admin dude, Mike, has a great camera for taking digital photos of flies. If you send him your flies, he'd probably photograph them for you.

If you want to go digital and do it yourself, a lot of the cameras out there will take some great up close photos. I have a digital camcorder that takes some pretty decent shots. I have a lot of fly photos I've taken. I store them in my journal program.

[Mike]

Light Cahill, you can always send Jason or I flies and we'll take pictures of them. This is personally my preferred method as the background color and lighting for the flies stays the same for the patterns in the fly tying section -- and I like checking out people's flies!

Alternately, you can do as other people have suggested and take a good macro photo of your flies with a digital camera. Of course a traditional camera works also, you just need to develop your photos and do a good scan of them. The most important part is using a camera with a good macro ability and getting the right lighting. If you do send a .jpg or something, please send a high-res one so that we can crop it down to the proper size and optimize it, etc....

I'm not a photography expert by any means, but I have learned that taking good pictures of flies can get a little challenging. The lighting needs to be right, you need a backdrop, you'll absolutely need a tripod if you're macro'd in to the max. Also, unless you're really a great photographer, taking actual photos (non-digital) of your flies is going to get pricey. At least with digital pictures you can see whether your photo is going to work out straight away.

[Jeff Brooks]

Digital Photo's

Ditto with what Mike said. I've had to spend a lot of time and effort trying various ways to get the best shot of my flies and I'll only add that using the flash on the camera usually is not a good idea... use a different source of light if you can.

[Light Cahill]

Thanks.... where do I mail the flies to?

[Light Cahill]

Sorry, I meant mail the actual fly to...